Veterinary Science

These radiographs are from a dog that presented to the hospital because he was constantly retching and nothing was coming up. When  you look at the rads you  immediately see a huge, gas distended stomach that is pushing everything else out of the way. When a stomach is just bloated like this it is called gastric dilatation, we relieved the gas by passing a stomach tube and then kept him in the hospital all night long monitoring him.

Sometimes this can progress to a state called gastric dilatation and volvulus or GDV which is when the stomach turns on itself and seals all the gas inside it. It loses its blood supply and can become necrotic or even rupture and the only way to fix it is to take the dog into surgery, flip the stomach around the right way and tack it in place.

If you ever notice your dog retching but unable to vomit, seems bloated or distended, and is uncomfortable get to a vet ASAP because GDV is usually fatal and emergency surgery is required.

Back when I was a very wee veterinary student (6 weeks into year 1) I was given the opportunity to necropsy a brown pelican.  I had no idea how to perform a necropsy on a mammal, let alone a bird, so I apologize deeply for the butchered technique here.

That said, the case was really cool.  The bird was brought into a wildlife center for severe dyspnea (difficulty breathing) and euthanized an hour after admittance.  Upon necropsy a number of unusual findings were seen.  The intestines were markedly thickened, exhibiting both fibrin formation and adherance to the body wall.  The air sacs were thick and blackened instead of being clear, thin and delicate.  When opened, the air sacs were stuffed with sharp, hard material, filamentous strands, and chunks of brown debris.

Something in the pelican’s diet of fish had torn through his intestines and his air sacs.  His intestines healed but the hole into the air sacs apparently remained — allowing the accumulation of fish bones and meat into the air sac system, where they became incredibly inflamed.  What’s not surprising was that the bird was dyspneic; what was surprising was that it survived for ten minutes like that, let alone long enough for the intestines to heal and the air sacs to show that degree of inflammation and filling with fish debris.

Craziness!!!

Removal of Giant Kidney Worms from Dog (by ThunderBayVet)

So fun fact about myself, I love parasites.  So I thought I would share this fun video with you all about a Kidney Worm removal from a dog.

Some little knowledge about the kidney worm, it is from the Order Dioctophymatida, family Dioctophymatidae.  Dioctophyme renale, aka Kidney worm is a giant nematode.  The females can grow as large as 100 cm long!

Their life cycle is pretty simple.  The kidney worms lemon shaped, thick walled eggs take between 2 weeks to 3 months to embryonate in water (temperature dependent). The first stage juveniles hatch when ingested by an aquatice oligochaete annelid Lumbriculus variegatus. 

^ looks like that.

Once inside the annelid, they enter its blood supply where they mature into third stage juveniles.  Once the annelid is ingested, the juvenile kidney worms move to the kidney of their new host.  If, however, the annelid is not consumed by a definitive host and instead eaten by a fish or a frog, the juveniles will encycte in the paratenic host’s muscles until the animal is consumed by a definitive host.  

And this is how dogs, as well as most large mammals get infected with the kidney worm, they ingest fish. Canids, bears, mustelids, as well as humans are especially susceptible to kidney worms because of their diets. However, cows, horses, and pigs can become infected by accidentally ingesting an annelid.

Like all things, infection can be avoided by properly cooking your fish, and only drinking purified water.

Bladder stones in a small dog. Check out that stone lodging in the proximal urethra! Jeez! She is doing better after a cystotomy surgery to remove the stones.

Inflating a set of cat lungs

Lungs are by most accounts mundane. Everybody has them, few give it much thought. But sequestered within darkness of the chest cavity, enveloping the fluttering heart, there’s a incredible wonder to this oddly inflatable organ.

Dissection is a destructive process. Rudely excised from membranous mooring and nourishing vessels, the deflated lungs appear little more than bloodied meat; amorphous and exposed…….until a breath of air unfurls its secret glory. 

Here, a set of cat lungs is inflated with a straw. Comprised of hundreds of millions of microscopic air sacks called aveoli, Mammalian lungs harbor air capacity that is difficult to believe unless seen. The color of the entire organ lightens into a soft pink, as each microscopic sac fills with air.

A debt of gratitude is owed to cyborgraptor for her assistance in creating these gifs, as well as the students that help me film this demo.